Lighting

In my scene, I applied a direct light with V-Ray shadows in certain areas to have some fuzziness in the shadows. I also colored the light and the shadows to have a pictorial result, not a photorealistic one (Fig.10).

Fig. 10

Render Parameters

I took the antialiasing "in catmul" and used the "linear workflow" of V-Ray, which allows you to have a more homogenous result. Then, I used the V-Ray pass rendering, which is indispensable for post-production. For the moment the 3D render was cold and impersonal, but allowed me to have a good perspective, volume, scale and direction of light (Fig.11).

Fig. 11

Before I talk about going to Photoshop, let's look at the pass rendering (Fig.12):

1. Wire color: selection of each element to retouch the materials or the lighting independently
2. Raw shadow: work on the shadows separately
3. Depth: to obtain depth of the field or not
4. Reflection: working on the reflection of each element

Fig. 12

Post-production

The post-production stage was the part of this project I liked the most because it allowed me to really personalize the image. As I mentioned earlier, before the 3D rendering the image was too cold and impersonal (Fig.13). So I decided to destroy the too perfect part of the 3D with 2D work in Photoshop.

Fig. 13

First I placed a sky in the background, in agreement with the concept art (Fig.14). Then I added some new elements to the image to break up the too perfect 3D rendering (Fig.15). I painted over the 3D to add a bit of dirt with the help of textures and brushes. A very practical tool to break up lines that are too straight is the Eraser.

(ID: 128815, pid: 0) Suztv on Wed, 27 June 2012 3:13pm This is a great overview of your process but I think in order for it to be considered a tutorial more details should be included. You mention how you created the building fronts and structures but really don't show anything other than the wireframes. If a beginner tries this tutorial they would have several missing steps and wouldn't get very far. The render looks fantastic and I think your set up is great but again I think this is more of a production overview and NOT a tutorial.

(ID: 101098, pid: 0) Czaja on Sat, 07 April 2012 12:38pm Thank you very much for your comments;)

(ID: 100990, pid: 0) Ludnid on Fri, 06 April 2012 11:51pm Really Impressive work considering the simple buildings but yet high sense of detail. Tutorials also very good for a Noobie and I'll be sure to recommend. Thanks for sharing your workflow. :)

(ID: 94152, pid: 0) Alexander on Tue, 13 March 2012 10:21am This is realy amazing work

(ID: 87460, pid: 0) Thomas Yemane on Sun, 19 February 2012 4:11pm this is what i called work.i just wanna say that this tutorial is very excellent and helpful for some one who is a total starter in 3d stuff.